Ghost Story
by youmakemehappywhenskiesaregrey
Summary: Damon is haunted by the ghost of someone he killed.


**So I wrote this a few years ago and never posted it but here it is. I wrote it some time during the 6th season but it's not set at any particular spot, when Elena's at college I guess. I think I borrowed the idea from the UK Being Human and wanted to apply it to Damon because as much as I love him he ticks me off. Anyway, I wrote this a few years ago and just thought I'd get around to posting it.**

The first time Stefan saw her he was passing his brother's room. The door had been slightly open and he had almost walked past when he saw a figure stradling his brother. Annoyed and more than a little disgusted he cleared his throat. "Keep the door closed!" He snapped. A second later it registered that the figure was not Elena and he turned around but the girl was gone.

Perplexed he stepped into the door way but found only his brother who was for all intents and purposes still soundly asleep. A quick look around the room yeilded no results and he stepped out, not understanding what he had seen.

After that Damon had become moodier than ever. He began spending large amounts of time shut up in his room and was drunk most of it. When he did come out he was surly and antagonistic. Even more than usual. He snapped when Stefan tried to speak to him and he sometimes went from room to room muttering to himself. A call to Elena at college told him Damon hadn't spoken to her recently. He didn't mention the girl to her. After all, no one had been in the room when he'd looked and there was no point causing her grief .

A few days after that he found Damon sitting on the back steps, drinking heavily. He looked tired and there were empty bottles at his feet. "Run out of bourbon?" He asked, noting that his brother had moved on to whiskey.

Damon grunted. "Yeah."

Stefan raised his eyebrows. "What's going on Damon?"

His brother grunted again. "Nothing." He twitched slightly.

"Damon you've been acting strange for days. What's happening?"

"I said nothing." Damon made a sloppy attempt to get to his feet, sending bottles clattering and having to catch himself.

"Yeah." Stefan muttered darkly, taking a step back. He wanted to say more But Damon was clamoring to his feet and dragging himself inside. Stefan took the long away around to the front door.

As he was passing around the corner of the house he saw the girl again. This time more clearly. She was blond. Young. She stood for a second, watching him before flickering and disappearing. He blinked, now seriously concerned. It had to be the same girl from Damon's room but if it was then she couldn't be human. Human's didn't blink out of existence. A cold feeling spread over him as he realized it had to be a ghost.

He kept a look out after that, watching for the next time the ghost appeared. He saw her again when Damon was getting into his car. She was standing by the passenger side door watching his brother. Damon seemed completely oblivious but he looked worse than ever. Stefan had to wonder if he'd slept at all and if that was the case then he wondered if he should even be driving. But a second later he was pulling out of the drive way and the girl was gone.

Later that night he tried bringing it up to his brother but Damon was surly and didn't seem to want to talk about it. "I've seen her repeatedly." Stefan said quickly, trying to head his brother off before Damon could leave the room.

"And I haven't so I don't care!" Damon snapped.

"Damon you must have! She's been in your room, just standing next to you. She's got blond hair. . . she's. . . young and pretty and. . ." He fumbled because there wasn't much else to say about her but it didn't seem to matter because he had finally caught his brother's attention. Something had resignated with Damon because he had had stopped in his tracks and his eyebrows had come together. Stefan took a deep breath. "Have you seen her before?" He asked.

Damon's nostrils flared and his eyes widened slightly. "No." His gaze flickered to a corner of the room and Stefan turned his head. The girl was standing there, arms crossed but a second later she was gone and Damon twitched slightly.

"Did you see her there?" Stefan asked, turning back.

Damon was standing stiffly and still staring at the spot the girl had been. He looked terrible. He was pale and tired looking and there was something nervous about the way he seemed to vibrate. "Does she say anything to you?" He asked in a low voice.

Stefan glanced at the empty corner of the room again. "No. I just see her. Why? Is she talking to you?"

Damon paused. "When I'm alseep she's there. She's in my dreams. She. . . she doesn't say anything but she's there." He wrinkled his nose like there was a bad smell. "Even in things she wasn't there for?"

"What do you mean she wasn't there for? Like a memory?" Stefan pressed the question, he knew how much his brother hated answering them and he could already feel him shutting down the conversation. "What have you been dreaming about?"

Damon hesitated again looking as though he might actually tell but then he made a face and stepped back. "Nothing." He muttered. "Get the witch to get rid of her or something." He said, heading towards his room.

Once left alone Stefan took another look around. The girl was back. She was faint looking but she was back, sitting on the back of a sofa, legs crossed and a curious expression on her face.

After that Stefan went to find Bonnie. Get the witch was probably the closest thing he would get to a plea for help from Damon and so he told her the whole story. The ghost of a girl was ahunting his brother. At frist Bonnie had been surprised but after that she had seemed mostly cool about the situation.

"Do you think he killed her?" She asked.

Stefan shrugged and hung his head over his drink. The grill was packed for the evening and the din of noise was something of a relief. It was nice not to be in the empty house. "I don't know. It's possible. But whatever she's doing to him it's effecting him. He isn't sleeping and he's drunk all day. He mentioned something about dreams but he won't tell me what he's been seeing in them."

She sat back in her seat. "What do you wnat me to do? Talk the ghost down? I've never cast a ghost out before."

"I didn't know if you could try? Try banishing it or something."

She paused, trying to remember if there was anything in any of the old Grimoires she had read that might deal with a situation like this. She thought there was but she'd have to take a closer look. "I can. I'll meet you at the boarding house tonight. Make sure Damon's there."

He nodded and gave her a half smile. "Thanks Bonnie. I'm worried about him." She nodded. Once upon a time if someone had told her a ghost was haunting Damon she probably would have let it but things were different now and Stefan's genuine concern was motivating.

That night she brought her books to the boarding house and found the brothers waiting. They were sitting in the living room and just as Stefan had said, Damon looked a mess. There were circles under his eyes and he was sitting stiffly with a surly expression on his face. She avoided saying too much to him, fairly certain he was in a terrible mood.

"What do we need to do?" Stefan asked, getting to his feet.

She handed him a piece of chalk. "Draw a circle on the floor." He did so and she opened her book, shooting a look at Damon before she began to speak. "Egredietur spiritus." She called out. Nothing happened and she glanced at Stefan who was scanning the room. "Egredietur spiritus." She said again. This time a figure flickered inside of the circle before disappearing and a lamp flew across the room, smashing harmlessly in a corner. She said it a third time and suddenly a girl was standing there.

This time Stefan got a good look at her. He was right, she was young. Early twenties at best. Blond hair, pretty but not beautiful. Average really. By her clothes he guessed she had died some time in the late 60s or maybe even early 70s. He couldn't really tell. Everything about her was terribly ordinary. Her clothes were average. fashionable for the time but simple. A sweater and a skirt. Not too short but not too long. She looked like anyone else. Certainly not evil. Not a demented spirit.

She stood still, eyes scanning their faces. Damon was squinting at her but without any sign of recognition.

Bonnie flipped through her book, trying to find the spell that woud banish the ghost. "Who are you?" Stefan asked while she was distracted.

The ghost turned to him. "Ask him." She said, pointing at Damon. There was a bitter bite to her voice.

Stefan turned to Damon but he shook his head, drawling away slightly on the couch.

This however seemed the wrong thing to do because the look on the ghost's face became contorted with rage. "You don't even remember?" She snapped. "You were the biggest event of my life!"

"Did he kill you?" Stefan asked in a low voice. He didn't look at Damon but he was sure his brother was giving him an annoyed look.

She turned her attention back to Stefan. "You're the good brother. It shouldn't surprise you." She said, voice still full of venom. "But I guess I shouldn't have expected him to remember. He's killed a lot of people."

"So he did kill you."

She paused, looking him over before nodding.

From where she was standing, Bonnie hooked her thumb to the page she needed but waited. She wanted to let Stefan finish his conversation and if she admitted it to herself, she was curious.

"I was just an ordinary girl. I was walking home from a friend's house. I saw him and didn't think anything of it. I even thought he was good looking." The hatred in her eyes intensified. "Then he was gone. I thought he'd turned down a side street but he hadn't. The next thing I knew he was in front of me and then I was dead. He doesn't even remember."

Damon shifted defensively. "I guess you weren't that memorable." He sneered.

Her eyes flashed. "But my family remembered me. My little sister. Once I was a ghost I went to their house. I tried to speak to them but I couldn't. I yelled and screamed but they couldn't hear me. I followed them around. I even went to my own funeral. I saw my father cry! I had never seen him cry before. I never wanted to. It was wrong! He was the strongest person in my life and I had to see him be weakened. You did that. You made my father cry. You took away his daughter and his grand children. I have nieces and nephews now that don't know who I am. They hear about me. They know the name Aunt Judy but it doesn't mean anything to them. My boyfriend married Barbrara Shirmir! I never liked Barbara Shirmir! They have three kids! He doesn't think about me! No one remembers me! No one! My parents are dead. My friends never think about me. The only thing they remember is poor old Judy. She died forty years ago! Remember Judy? That was sad! My sister is the only person who even remembers what my favorite color was and why would she think about that? It's been forty years! When she dies no one will remember me! You did that! I could have had children but you were feeling a little hungry and you killed me!"

From his seat on the couch Damon was becoming increasingly hostile looking. Stefan began to worry that he would do something to set her off. "Judy. . ." He said, sure he had gotten her name by now. "I sorry for what he did to you."

She scoffed. "He's not. He doesn't know how to be sorry."

"I had my emotions shut off!" Damon snapped. "It could have been you or anyone else."

She rounded on him. "Is that supposed to make it better? Less worse? You had your feelings shut off? Am I supposed to care? It doesn't make it better. It doesn't change anything because you've killed people even with your emotions turned on. I've followed you. Once I couldn't bare to see my family any more I found you. I watched you kill and maim and destroy. For decades. You ruin everything you touch!"

"I've saved people too." He snarled.

She snorted, matching his spite with her own. "You've killed more people than you'll ever save."

"It's what I am!" He yelled back.

"Then maybe you shouldn't exist! You haven't made the world a better place. You've never contributed anything in your entire life. You make fun of Stefan. You call him Saint Stefan because he has the audacity to feel bad for the things he's done. He has the gall to try and do good. He can't fix what he's done. He can't even make up for it but at least he tries. What do you do? You throw a temper tantrum and someone ends up dead."

"I never chose to be a vampire." Damon hissed. He was losing some of his venom and Stefan had to wonder if what she was saying was reaching him. The worst part was that he himself had thought all of these things before. When he was mad at his brother. When Damon had gone over board over something. He had thought these things.

"You could have ended it. But you chose to live on as a leach. You suck the life out of the world and every time you do you decide that your life is worth more than someone elses! That yours was more important than mine! You decided that!"

"What do you want me to do? Kill myself?"

"You don't get to whine about not wanting to be a vampire if you're not willing to stop. You don't get to be a victim."

Both of their faces were contorted in rage and anger. "I wont feel bad about some bimbo I don't even remember killing!"

"You are a parasite!" She said through gritted teeth. "You are a cancer on this earth. An anomaly that makes the whole world sick! You even ruin the people you don't kill. Look how mnay times your brother has forgiven you. Your little girl friend? You've ruined her. She would never have been okay with all of the terrible things you've done if you hadn't corrupted her! The very fact that she doesn't vomit when you touch her proves you've contaminated her."

This seemed to reach Damon somewhat because his expression grew slightly panicked and Stefan began to see glimpses of pain on his brother's face.

"Damon. . ." He said softly.

"I don't want to ruin her." He said softly.

"But you can't help it. There's a reason everyone picks your brother. Because when they pick you, bad things happen. They become worse people."

Damon's face spazmed but it stayed contorted in a sneer.

"It's no wonder your parents picked your brother. Even as a human you weren't any good. You didn't contribute. You didn't do anything good. You've never done anything but make the world worse. They knew. They saw you for what you were. What you would be. You're a sniveling little boy. You whine and whine and whine and pretend you're the victim but you deserve it."

"He didn't deserve that." Stefan interjected. She was reaching through Damon's anger. She was hurting him. He could tell, even if his brother continued to sneer and make nasty comments, she was getting to him. "Damon didn't deserve the stuff that was done to him as a kid. Half the time he was just sticking up for me."

"And that makes him nobel and good? He was an okay big brother once upon a time?"

"It doesn't change anything he's done since but he was good as a human. Don't ever say he deserved not being loved." How she even knew this he didn't know. Perhaps she had just been around long enough to pick up on things or perhaps she had some otherworldly understanding. Either way he wanted her to stop.

"He doesn't deserve it now. He's a monster and no amount of half assed good can ever change that. He's a destroyer. He ruins everything! He ruined me. I would still be alive today." A flash of pain ripped through her anger and her eyes watered slightly. "I was so insignificant to him and to the world that my death didn't change anything. It was meaningless and it made my life meaningless. He stole any chance of meaning from my life!"

"And tormenting him fixes it?"

She sniffed slightly, tron between her anger and her tears. "No. B-but it makes me feel better. I don't exist because of him. Hundreds of people don't." The spite returned to her voice. "You got lucky with me. I didn't have a husband or children. There are no little orphans running around because you killed me but but do you think you've never made others? Little boys and little girls who never saw their parents again because of you." She took a step towards the couch but was stopped by the circle. Damon none the less drew back. His face was a mix of panic and waning contempt. The more she got to him the more he tried to fight it with snarky comments and bravado.

"Maybe I do feel bad." He said carefully. "Maybe I wish I hadn't killed all of those people." He flinched slightly as though admitting it had actually caused discomfort. "I mean I'm sure some of them deserved it. But you really think I don't know everything you're saying?" He glanced at Stefan and Stefan got the impression Damon wished he couldn't hear it.

She snorted again. "Oh you feel bad? Oh gosh that changes everything. You feel bad for killing me? Well then I forgive you!" He flinched slightly. "Do you want to be forgiven?"

However this time her mocking had had a reverse effect. "Not by you."

She paused, seemingly surprised by this. "I know you feel bad. Deep down I know you do. Or all the dreams I gave you wouldn't have had you drunk for days on end. You're a coward. I've never met anyone more afraid of being hurt. Your cowardice is purely selfish."

"Judy this won't accomplish anything. Can't you just pass on or something?"

She turned to Stefan. "Pass on? Just pass on like I died in my sleep?"

Stefan glanced at Damon, hoping he wouldn't speak. "Judy this won't accomplish anything. He knows what he's done and you're just wasting your time. There's an other side and I'm sure there's a place for you there. If you go I won't have Bonnie force you."

She glanced at Bonnie and this time she looked more afraid. "I can'. . ." She said softly.

Bonnie raised her book to show she was ready and Stefan glanced back at Judy. "Are you going?"

She fixed her gaze on Damon and stayed silent for a moment. It was such a long moment he almost motioned for Bonnie to start but then Judy nodded.

"I'll go but there will be more like me. More girls, more ghosts. There are others out there, they didn't come near you because of me but there are others."

Damon flinched slightly and Stefan glanced back at him. "Go" He said quietly.

She narrowed her eyes and looked around at them all before disappearing and then as if she was never there she was gone.

Stefan breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you alright?" Stefan asked quietly. Bonnie folded her book and turned to Damon who looked shell shocked.

"I'm fine." He said stiffly, staring at a spot on the wall and not meeting their eyes.

"She was so angry. . ." Bonnie said softly.

Stefan nodded and wished his brother would snap out of it. "Damon, did you really not remember her at all?"

"No." He said just as quietly.

Stefan lowered his gaze and studded the floor for a moment. "Her rage was overwhelming." he felt as though he could still hear Judy's shrieks echoing around the room.

"I'm going for a drink." Damon said abruptly, reaching for his coat and hurrying past.

Stefan tried to stop him. "Don't do anything stupid." He said sharply.

Damon glared at him. "Like what?"

Stefan stopped. "You know what I mean." He said. "Don't do anything stupid. Judy was an angry ghost, her words were colored by decades of being dead."

Damon paused for a moment before speaking. "I don't think you believe that." he said, turning and leaving the room.

Stefan glanced at Bonnie and wished she was gone. He didn't want to face anyone at the moment.

"Are you gonna be okay?" She asked.

He nodded.

"And Damon?"

He looked after his brother and heard the sound of a car engine. "He'll be Damon. I don't know."

"I think he was pretty rattled." She sad.

He nodded again. "Judy was right."

She was quiet for a moment before swallowing. "You manage your condition." She said half heartedly, knowing that she had agreed with Judy at one time.

"It doesn't matter, she was right."

"She sighed "Don't you do anything stupid." She said, walking past him and leaving the house.

Stefan was left alone and ver aware of the ringing silence. Judy was gone but he would remember her.

 **So I wrote this a year or two years ago and I gotta say, critiquing myself, the beginning is pretty strong but I think Judy's ranting got too drawn out and too preachy. I also didn't really like that i had borrowed the idea like that from Being Human and that was a big reason I never posted. I didn't edit it much before posting, mostly because I don't write a lot of fanfiction any more but also because the story was finished to me. Idk. The ending's a bit rushed and falls kind of flat but I enjoyed writing it when I did. I just thought I'd post it to post it. Hope somebody enjoyed.**


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